I Will Not Fear The Unexpected
by GinevraJanePotter
Summary: Emma and Gold/Rumplestiltskin leave for Manhattan to find Baelfire but when things turn out to be more complicated than the expected, will Emma run, as usual, or face it head on, like the true daughter of Snow White and Prince Charming? Contains the Charmings, Swan Thief/Swanfire.
1. Be Careful

**To readers of my other fanfictions: I know I really should be writing and finishing my other stories but I seemed to have a mental block with all of them and have no idea where to go next.**

**But to everyone, I hope you like this story and please review. It takes some parts from the episode Manhattan but is a AU mainly because it's what I think should happen**

'Ready, Princess Emma?' were the first words Emma heard as she answered the door half an hour after Snow and Henry had left for school, leaving herself and David, with whom she was actually getting a good father-daughter relationship with, alone in the apartment.

Ever since Emma and Snow's return to Storybrooke, the residents had started to call her "Princess Emma," a few had begun to before but now practically everyone except her family was calling her it and it annoyed her no end. She had only just got though her head that her parents were Snow White and Prince Charming and she was not ready to step up into the role she was born into, she had no idea how.

'Yeah, just let me grab my stuff,' Emma replied to Rumplestiltskin, gesturing him into the apartment.

Emma looked back over at her father to see him frowning at her with a questioning look in his eyes. She had yet to tell him that she was leaving to find Rumplestiltskin's son but, every time she had tried, she either got distracted by Henry or her mother would ask her to do something or she just wouldn't be able to find the words and _now, _now she was out of time.

'Actually Gold, make yourself comfortable and help yourself to coffee, the kettle's just boiled,' Emma sighed as she gestured to her father to follow her into the other room. While the residents of Storybrooke may feel comfortable to call her "Princess" she still struggled to call them by their fairy-tale names.

'Where are you going?' David said as soon as he had shut the door behind them so to give them some privacy, although the walls in the apartment where paper thin so it wouldn't make a large amount of difference. 'With Rumplestiltskin of all people. He's dangerous, Emma.'

'I know,' Emma replied defensively and tiredly: her mother had said the exact same thing. 'But I made a deal –'

'Emma!' her father snapped. 'What on earth where you thinking? You don't make deals with that … man.'

He obviously felt man was a rather lose term to describe Rumplestiltskin.

'That's rather hypocritical, haven't you made a deal with him more than once,' Emma frowned over at him and David looked away from her gaze, knowing that she was indeed right. 'Anyway, it was before I knew who he was; I was trying to make sure As- Aunt Ella could keep her child,' (David sighed heavily: he couldn't fault her for that) 'and now he's decided to cash it in … it-it could be a lot worse.'

'What _exactly _does he want from you, Emma?'

'He wants me to help him find his son.' David frowned, questions running though his head, _why would Rumplestiltskin ask Emma of all people to go with him? And since when did he have a son? _'I guess that not common knowledge.'

'No, it's definitely not,' he replied and then deciding there would be no changing the mind of his headstrong daughter he began again. 'Emma-'

'I'll be fine,' his daughter smiled lightly knowing what he was going to say. 'I really need to get going.'

'When will you be back?' he questioned.

'When we find Baelfire,' Emma shrugged, beginning to walk past him towards the door.

David, however, had other ideas in mind.

As his daughter walked past him, he reached out and wrapped his arms around her, hugging her tightly, hating the idea that he had no idea when he would see her again once she left with Rumplestiltskin.

'Dad,' Emma groaned, not realizing the word had slipped out her lips but her voice - luckily, in her opinion - was muffled due to the fact that she was pressed so hard against him in a way that suggested if he had his way she would never leave: his view, this apartment, the safety of his arms, she would stay here in Storybrooke where he could make sure she couldn't be harmed.

However, the tightening of her father's arms around her told her that he had understood her word all the same and she could almost sense his check-hurting grin.

She hadn't really been calling him anything recently. She knew she could have called him "James" or "David" for the past few weeks and he wouldn't have minded because he knew this was hard for her but she just felt so bad for not being able to call him "dad" and not feeling right calling him by his first name that she had resulted in just saying "hey" and looking him in the eye before saying what she wanted to. Yeah, she deserved daughter-of-the-year.

'I love you, sweetheart, be careful,' David said softly waiting for her to inevitable tense, which she did but surprising she relaxed again.

'I love you, too.'

He had known it before, what father didn't, but this was the first time she had said it aloud and he knew in that moment that Snow was right about Emma's walls: there wasn't a trick to getting though them or breaking them down, you just had to prove to her you cared enough, and sure it took time but she was slowly letting them inside. Snow may have been further inside her castle-like walls but now he was entering further too.

'I really do have to go,' Emma muttered a few seconds later. 'Gol- Rumplestiltskin's waiting.'

David made a face at the reminder of the man with whom she was leaving with but he, reluctantly, let her go, taking a risk and pressing a kiss to her forehead as he did so.

'Be careful,' he said again and smiled slightly as she rolled her eyes.

'I will,' she spoke with the air of someone who was distinctly amused at how many times she had been told that. She then pressed a kiss to his cheek before spinning around and heading back into the kitchen, where he could hear her speak to Rumplestiltskin. 'Okay, let's go.'

David nearly groaned as he began walking towards the door, _yep, there was no chance Rumplestiltskin hadn't heard every word of his conversation with his daughter._

'Excellent,' Rumplestiltskin was saying as he walked into the room. 'The plane leaves at 12.'

'Then we need to be there by 10,' his daughter sighed, reaching for her bag but David beat her to it and picked it up while gesturing her out the door.

She rolled her eyes but smiled at him before the three of them left the apartment.

Emma walked faster than the two men down the stairs so David took the opportunity to speak to Rumplestiltskin.

'Listen, Imp,' he said harshly, causing the imp in question to look toward him with raised eyebrows wondering where the hostility came from, 'if you bring my daughter home in less than the perfect condition she's in now, you will pay and dearly.'

'I'd expect nothing less, your majesty,' Rumplestiltskin replied understandingly, 'and I have no intention of harming your daughter.'

'Good,' David said, still giving the "man" a hard look, 'because if you do, I will be the least of your worries.'

'Will you two hurry up,' Emma called from the ground floor. 'We have to get going.'

With one final glare, both men began to walk a little faster to catch up to the impatient princess.

'So when did Emma tell you she was leaving?' David asked his wife as soon as she walked through the door with Henry after work later that day, although a smile was still fixed on his face from his daughter words that morning.

'She's left?' Snow questioned herself, blatantly ignoring his questions as her eyes searched the apartment for their daughter, her face falling slightly when she couldn't find her.

'Yeah, this morning not long after you and Henry went to school,' David replied, noticing how Henry's face dropped at the information.

'Oh, I thought she was leaving tonight,' Snow said heavily as she took her coat off and hung it on the coat rack by the door. 'She told me last night, to answer your question.'

'She told me last week,' Henry said frowning, no doubt wondering, like David and Snow now were, why Emma had withheld this information from her parents so long. 'But not exactly when.'

'Why do you ask, Charming?' his wife concerned voice broke though.

'Oh, it just she told me as she was leaving,' David replied, 'so I was wondering how long she'd known.'

Snow gave him a sympathetic look but it was curious, as well, as though she knew something else had happened with Emma that morning before she left.

'What else happened today, Charming?' she raised her eyebrows curiously as she finally got around to shutting the door and making Henry move further into their small home.

His smile widened to a grin as he thought of what had him smiling anyway while Snow pressed a kiss to his check and moved toward to kettle, no doubt to make her and Henry hot chocolate.

'She called me "Dad",' David grinned as he turned around from leaning on the counter to face her, chuckling slightly as all his wife movements stopped in shock at his sudden words. 'And said she loved me.'

Snow turned around slowly, a beaming smile already on her lips.

'Oh, Charming,' she breathed before she threw her arms around him, knowing without words how much Emma's words would mean to him even if they both already knew it, there was something special, heart-warming and reassuring about hearing it.

Of course, Emma hadn't actually got around to calling Snow "Mum" yet but in the Enchanted Forest, she had heard Emma's words to Aurora, although Emma didn't know that, and those had warmed her heart and made her confident that her daughter would come around eventually.

"' … _But I tried to kill your friend.'_

'_Mother, actually.'"_

David gave her a large smile as she pulled back, placing a loving kiss on her lips before going over to Henry as Snow got back to making Hot Chocolate.

'So tell me what the plan is,' Emma said to Rumplestiltskin as the unbuckled their seatbelts when the seatbelt lights on the plane went off.

'I've got a potion that if we pour on an object that belonged Bae, it will glow when we're near him,' Rumplestiltskin explained in extremely simple terms. 'Like when you're looking for something someone's hidden and they say whether your hot or cold, only this is far more accurate.'

'So you want to walk around New York City, waiting for this object to glow,' Emma asked incredulously.

'Yes,' he replied as though this wouldn't be a problem.

'Do you realize how big New York is?' Emma nearly yelled in frustration. 'We could be here for weeks.'

'Then I hope you brought enough clothes, Miss Swan, but I know he lives in Manhattan so we aren't searching _all _of New York City,' Rumplestiltskin said as his face twisted into something like a smile while Emma was just glad that they wouldn't be searching New York completely and that he called her "Miss Swan" instead of "Princess Emma" which would have drawn a bit of attention to them.

They had already caused a bit of commotion at the airport and Emma had had to maneuverer their way out of it with a few lies but a few people had gotten rather annoyed and they couldn't have anybody becoming suspicious of them or it would be an extremely long drive to New York from Maine and Emma would not be happy about sitting in a car with Rumplestiltskin for around 7 hours. Luckily the flight was only around an hour long, hence the reason they were taking it rather than driving.

'So, what do you think Baelfire will look like?' Emma questioned when the silence became uncomfortable.

'No idea,' Rumplestiltskin replied heavily. 'He'll have dark brown hair and brown eyes, that's all I know.'

'Any idea of his age?' Emma sighed, hoping for something that would help, if the object just started glowing in the middle of say Times Square when it was packed with people.

'I believe he will be around your age, actually,' he said. 'Maybe a few years older.'

Emma nodded, not having much else to say since small talk didn't really work with Rumplestiltskin, and was suddenly really glad that she had thought to bring a book for such a short flight.

Emma almost sighed with relief as she felt the plane hit the run way at LaGuardia Airport, which was the closer airport to Manhattan that Rumplestiltskin could find, but he actually did sigh: he hadn't liked flying one bit.

Once they got out of the airport, Emma got them a taxi and gave the directions to Manhattan, wondering where on earth they should start.


	2. Manhattan

Emma's feet were killing her and it was getting dark. They had been walking around Manhattan since they had arrived in New York and the piece of fabric Rumplestiltskin had enchanted hadn't glowed once, in fact, Emma was starting to think it wasn't working.

'Let's just go back to the hotel and start again in the morning,' Emma sighed, flopping down on a bench and relishing at the feeling of not having all her weight on her feet.

'Excellent idea,' Rumplestiltskin agreed as he sat down next to her.

Emma looked at him carefully, if she was tired then no doubt he was since he had half drag is leg around.

Once Emma had cleaned up a bit in the room they had gotten, she headed up to the roof with her phone intending to call her parents and Henry.

'Why is my life so crazy?' she asked to the sky before looking down at her watch.

At this time, Henry and her parents were probably about to head to bed so she quickly dialled the home number, a thought that still made her smile. She'd never really had a home before Storybrooke, sure she had had that small apartment in Boston but not even she would call that a home. The closest thing she had ever had was the yellow bug she still had that she had shared with her first love, Neal, but she was sure most people would describe a home as a house but Emma believed the saying that "home is where your heart is" and heart had been with Neal.

'I'll get it,' Henry yelled as the phone went off, scrambling out of his chair and across the room.

His grandparents had allowed him to stay up until his mum called, which they knew she would, so they were all just sitting around watching Disney's version of Snow White – Henry had convinced them to see how they were represented.

'Mum?' Henry asked hopefully as he answered the phone.

'Hey, kid,' Emma's familiar voice came through the earpiece. 'You being good for you grandparents? Not causing trouble?'

'I don't cause trouble, mum,' Henry said stubbornly as Snow and David looked up at him, now knowing that it was their daughter who was calling. 'Now, where are you? What have you been doing? Have you found him yet? How are you going to find? What-'

'Henry, slow down,' Emma laughed and Henry bit his lip so no more questions could burst out. 'Put it on speakerphone, please, that way I won't have to repeat myself.'

Henry did as he was told as he made his way back to his grandparents, who were still sitting on the sofa.

'Hi, sweetie,' Snow said. 'Are you okay?'

'Yeah, I'm fine,' they heard Emma say and they could almost hear the rolling of her eyes. 'And hi.'

David chuckled, 'hi, sweetheart.'

'Now, Emma, answer my questions, please,' Henry almost whined, he had been changing between "Emma" "Memma" and "Mum" since she returned but now it was completely natural, he didn't even notice which one he used.

'Okay, okay,' Emma laughed again. 'I'm in Manhattan, we've been walking round it all day since we arrived and no we haven't found him yet but that's hardly surprising. The plan, Henry, is to wait for this piece of fabric to glow to tell us that he's near – I just hope it does more than that because Manhattans a very busy place.'

'Oh, I'm sure Rumplestiltskin took that into consideration,' David smiled.

'If he didn't, I might just murder him,' Emma grumbled.

'Emma,' Snow scolded.

'Look, I have to go, early start,' Emma sighed but with a hint of laughter. 'I love you all. Henry, be good.'

'Yeah, yeah,' Henry said, standing up. 'I love you, too. Bye, mum.'

'Bye, Emma, we love you,' Snow sighed, obviously not wanting the call to end.

'Call soon, sweetheart,' David added, taking the phone from Henry as he began to make his way toward the stairs.

'Bye,' Emma said and then the line disconnected and David got up from the sofa to place it back in its holder.

'Let's get started,' Emma said the next morning once she and Rumplestiltskin had finished breakfast in the hotel. 'The sooner we find this guy the better, for both of us.'

Her companion nodded with a smile and began to stand.

Once they were back out on the streets on Manhattan, Emma brought the piece of Baelfire's cloak out and held it in front of her.

'You know,' she began conversational, 'we started so early that if we find where he lives, he may still be sleeping and –'

She stopped talking as suddenly the fabric began to glow and pull away from her.

'Hold onto it, Miss Swan,' Rumplestiltskin warned, suddenly looking rather nervous. However, his words were in vain as the fabric slipped through Emma's fingers and smacked not into a building like she had expected but into a man leaving an apartment building.

The man looked down at his arm were the part of the cloak had hit him before he looked up, right into Rumplestiltskin's gaze. Neither Emma nor Rumplestiltskin could see his face since he was wearing a dark hoody with the hood up due to the rain that was just beginning to fall but Emma could tell that he didn't have Rumplestiltskin's stringy build, he was still tall but he was broader.

'Shit,' Emma heard him muttered and the voice sounded vaguely familiar to her but before she could think anything more about it, the figure had turned and began to run.

'Oh no,' she sighed heavily, _why did he have to run?_

'Get him, please,' Rumplestiltskin begged, staring after the man that magic had said was his son.

Emma looked at him for one second before she took off in pursuit of the person.

'Stay here,' she called over her shoulder before she focused on following the figure, which she could see not far ahead of her.

The man was fast, as though he'd spent many years running, and he dodged people and obstacles easily, although they both nearly got hit by a taxi as he sprinted across the busy road. He obviously knew New York well as he slipped into a small alley way that Emma probably wouldn't have seen if she had just been walking past.

Following him down the narrow alley, almost slipping in a puddle as she did so, Emma noticed it was a crisscross of paths, which, for experience, she knew was the best place to lose someone. Unluckily, for the man, Emma knew the back areas of New York quite well and took a short cut to where she guessed he was going: a wider street that led to another main road, which if he managed to lose her would have his best chance of escape.

Timing her exit until he was just passed the tiny alley way she was in, she jumped out tackling him to the wet ground. The force of her collision not only caused them to hit the ground but also to slide along it.

'Don't struggle,' she panted, thinking that, like everyone else she had chased, he wouldn't listen then he did but it seemed a shocked freeze.

The next words that were said made her jump up as though she had been burned because she knew where she recognised the voice from now. How could she not? It was voice that she had woken up to every morning for at least a year. A voice she would have walked through fire for. A voice that comforted her when she was upset. A voice she should have known anywhere.

'Emma?' the horribly familiar voice whispered in a hoarse voice.

'No,' is all she manages to say as she backs up against the brick wall of the building behind her, shaking her head slightly in denial - this had to be a nightmare, it had. There was no way Neal _freaking_ Cassidy was Baelfire, it couldn't be possible. She squeezed her tightly shut, trying to keep at bay the tears over Neal that she had never allowed herself to cry and hoping when she opened them he wouldn't be there anymore.

'Ems,' he said gently and she knew without looking out him that he was reaching out towards her with a pained look on his handsome face, the same look he always had when she was the slightest bit upset because what had hurt her, had hurt him too, as clique as that sounded.

Her heart twinged at the old nickname in his voice and she just shook her head again bringing her hands up to cover her face.

'Babe, please, look at me,' that voice said again cutting her deeper as she shook her head, keeping her eyes closed and her face covered with her hands as she felt a single tear slip out. 'Babe.'

She felt him grasp her arms gently just above her elbow and she felt the familiar shock go through her body causing her to silently curse that he still had this effect on her. His calling her "babe" was not helping her keep control herself, either, because a part of her, the part that made her wonder if behind all her walls she was still the girl in the glasses, wanted nothing more than to leap into his arms as though nothing had changed but the other part of her knew that it had and that part was angry and hurt, emotions that usually won out.

Emma allowed him to guide her arms down to her side but kept her eyes firmly closed, afraid of what she would see in his eyes if she looked into them and what her reaction would be.

'Come on, Babe,' his voice came again. 'I wanna talk.'

Emma's eyes snapped open.

'"You wanna talk"?' she quoted, her eyes widening before narrowing dangerously causing Neal to, wisely, take a step back. 'What do you want to talk about, Neal? How you abandoned me? How you sent me to jail for a crime you committed? What the hell do you want to talk about?'

'Ems-' he began.

'Don't call me that!' she snapped.

'Em_ma_,' Neal corrected to her sudden statement. 'Just listen to me, please. You have every right to be angry but I was honestly trying to do what was best for you.'

'How was going to jail what was best for me?' she screeched back at him incredulously. 'How was you leaving me, best for me? I loved you; I trusted you.'

Neal swallowed heavily, nodding his head gravely, 'I know and I loved you. That's why I did it because I loved you and August tol-'

'August?' Emma interrupted momentarily side-tracked.

'Your friend, August, he said you had-'

'Shut up, just shut up a minute!' Neal sighed obviously getting annoyed at the fact she continually kept cutting him off. 'You left me because _Pinocchio _told you to?'

'Well, in a way,' Neal related realizing how much worse it sounded when she put it like that, 'but I was doing what I thought was best for you, I was helping you to get home, you always wanted to meet you parents, Ems, you deserved it. He told you _had _to break the curse, that your parents were in that town-'

'And you just believed him?' Emma always growled. 'You believed him that your girlfriend, who you claim to love, had to break a curse over a load of fairy-tale characters?'

He sent her a look that told her she was clearly forgetting something vitally important and when she remembered how she ended up in this situation, she sounded all the more realistic.

'I'm not saying anything more until me the truth about who you are,' Emma said, still breathing heavily from shouting and running. 'Were you playing me? Did you know all along who I was?'

'No, I didn't,' Neal interrupted her this time before she got the wrong idea, 'and I haven't been Baelfire for a long time, to me he doesn't exist. What does he want?'

Emma didn't even have to ask who he was on about, 'he wants you.'

'Really?' Neal said with a slight laugh before his face turned deadly serious. 'How do you fit into this?'

'I made a deal with him-'

'A deal!' Neal exclaimed, grabbing her by the arms again and pulling her closer to him before saying hoarsely, 'are you insane? Do you have a death wish or something, Emma? He' s dangerous, you don't make deals with that man.'

Neal's voice had rose steadily as he'd spoken

'I was new to town, I didn't know who he was and I don't regret the reason I did it,' Emma yelled back at him, pulling herself free of his grasp. 'Why do you care?'

'Because I still love you and I won't allow him to hurt y-' Neal's words had trailed off as he realized what he had said and Emma stared at him wide-eyed.

'No, you not allowed to love me,' Emma said the words almost icily after a few seconds too long of silence.

'Love does not work like that, Ems,' Neal said tiredly, shaking his head gently.

'Stop calling me that,' Emma said weakly.

'Sorry.'

'Come on,' Emma said after a few minutes of them just standing there. 'I have to take you to your father.'

'No way!' Neal snapped. 'I'm not talking to him.'

'You don't have to talk to him,' Emma almost pleaded. 'Just please go to him, let him talk to you.'

'Why?'

'Because I made a deal with him!' Emma cried, waving a hand around and feeling slightly hysteric. 'If I don't keep my end up who knows what he'd do. He took my Uncle from my Aunt because she broke a deal with him. I'm trying to protect my family; I'm trying to protect my son.'

'Your son,' Neal repeated sounding a little hoarse again and Emma could see his eyes flash down to her left hand, no doubt looking for a ring

'My son, your son, ' Emma told him, knowing he was wondering if he'd heard correctly but her worry over that he would not come made it her turn to say too much but she continued anyway, knowing he'd find out anyway. 'Our son.'

Neal said nothing just stared at her as though his mind was still processing the words she had dropped like a bomb.

'_Our son_.'

'Quick repeating me,' Emma said breathlessly. 'Please, Neal, let's talk about this later.'

It seemed she'd finally pushed him over the edge as he sighed heavily and nodded his head. He gestured with her to lead the way, when her phone went. Searching frantically for her phone, Emma began to walk Neal walking beside her.

'Hello?' she said when she finally located it in the depths of her coat pockets.

'Mum?' Henry's voice came over the phone.

'Hey, kid,' Emma replied, a large grin spreading over her face and Neal's head turned towards her curiously causing her to nod in reply to his silent question. 'What's going on?'

'Well, Gramps was thinking about getting me a horse and teaching me to ride but I have to check with you,' Henry said, and she could practically see him bouncing with joy and a large grin stretched over his face. 'It's okay right? Please say it's okay!'

'Let me make sure I heard this correctly,' Emma said, half frowning, half smiling. 'My dad' – Emma saw Neal smile out the corner of her eye – 'wants to buy you a _horse_ and teach you to ride it?'

'Yep,' Henry replied, almost cheekily.

'Okay, sure,' Emma laughed. 'Just be careful, Henry.'

'Yeah, yeah, mum,' that was cheeky. 'I'll be fine. I love you. Thanks!'

'Mhumm,' Emma hummed. 'I love you, too. Bye.'

'Bye!'

Emma brought the phone down from her ear, shaking her head with an amused smile on her face. That was so like, her eyes flickered to the man next to her, it was so like him. However, she'd stopped being surprised at the things Henry did so much like his father because she'd realized that he was much more like Neal than he was her.

'So his name's Henry,' Neal observed, pulling her out of her thoughts as they stepped out of the little alleyway that they had turned off the main street into.

'Yeah.'

'When did you find out?' asked Neal, attempting to keep a conversation going.

'When I got the car keys,' Emma said honestly before adding sarcastically. 'Thanks for that, it really softened the blow.'

'What about the money?' Neal asked and Emma turned to him sharply but continued walking.

'What money?'

'The money from the watches, I told August to give you it with the keys.'

'You gave _Pinocchio_ the money to give to me?' Emma asked. 'I never got the money, Neal, he took it.'

'Fuck, stupid scumbag,' Neal cursed. 'He was supposed to be helping you.'

'I only met him a few months ago, so much for helping… where is he?' They had arrived back at where they had started but Rumplestiltskin was nowhere to be seen. Emma looked up at building. 'You live here?'

'Yeah, why?' Neal said, as he stopped his search for his father to look at her curiously.

'Shall we check your apartment for him,' Emma suggested, she could just imagine Rumplestiltskin breaking into his sons apartment to wait for them. 'If he's not there we can check the hotel room.'

Neal sighed heavily, he didn't really want to see his father at all, let alone search him out, but he had to protect Emma, Henry and their family. He led her up to the apartment where the door was open very slightly.

'He's here,' Emma said.


	3. Rumplestiltskin

'He's here,' Emma said, feeling a little bad for forcing him into this now that she saw how tense he was at the thought of seeing his father. 'This means nothing.'

Neal looked at her curiously once again as she made her way towards him. Standing on her toes, she wrapped her arms tightly round his neck, hoping she still had the same calming effect over him that she used to. She felt his shoulders relax as he wrapped his arms tightly around her waist and bent his head onto her shoulder.

He pulled back after a little while, still giving her that look, and Emma shrugged, 'you looked like you needed it.'

'What I need is alcohol,' Neal corrected with a glimpse of the grin she used to and still did, if she allowed herself to admit it, love so much, 'but I'll take a hug from you any day.'

Emma rolled her eyes as he pushed the apartment door open and stepped inside before she followed him.

Rumplestiltskin was sitting by the window staring down at the road and seemed to be so deep in thought that he hadn't noticed their entrance.

'Gold,' Emma said, walking over and shaking his shoulder.

'Princess,' he said respectively, nodding his head slightly.

Emma pulled a face back at Neal, who actually laughed at her discomfort with the name, but then grimaced himself when he realize he'd just brought his father's attention to him. Emma disappeared into the next room, which turn out to be a small kitchen, to give them privacy and to protect herself if Neal started throwing things at his father but she could still hear them.

'Bae?' she heard Rumplestiltskin almost whisper, she didn't hear Neal answer but he must have nodded or something because Rumplestiltskin continued speaking. 'Baelfire, my boy.'

'You have two minutes,' Neal said harshly but surprisingly calm and Emma could almost picture the hurt on Rumplestiltskin's face causing her to feel slightly bad for him, maybe she should have stayed in there to keep Neal _slightly _politer but then she remembered what Rumplestiltskin had done to her family not to mention other people. 'I don't want to talk to you; I don't want to see you; so say your piece and get out my apartment.'

'Bae,' Rumplestiltskin said pleadingly. 'I made a mistake, please, allow me to remedy it.'

'You wanna try and make up for growing up in a world I had no idea about _alone_?' Neal said sharply. 'That's not possible and don't you even think about suggesting magic. I want nothing more to do with magic.'

There was a prolonged silence in which Emma was beginning to get antsy and she couldn't help but think that, if he was ever going to meet his son, he was going to have to put up with the magic of Storybrooke.

'I just want to start over.'

'It's not happening,' Neal laughed although there was no humour in his voice.

'At least here me out, Bae, please,' Rumplestiltskin said heavily seeming to already resign himself to the fact that his son hated him which surprised Emma emensly.

'I told you, you had two minutes,' Neal reminded him. 'So get talking because the clocks ticking.'

'I knew I made a mistake, I knew it the moment the portal closed but I couldn't get to you and I couldn't take it back,' Rumplestiltskin's words poured out his mouth. 'I've been trying to get back to you ever since, I created the curse –'

'_You_ created the curse!' Neal yelled angrily, finally snapping and causing Emma to grimace. 'You cursed all these innocent people!'

'To find _you_,' Rumplestiltskin reminded him as though it would make Neal happier but it just caused Emma to shake her head sadly knowing that wouldn't have the effect he wished for.

'They were still innocent!' Neal reminded his father. 'You ruined their lives and still, amazingly - that's a real talent you have there, by the way - managed to ruin mine as well.'

'What do mean?' Rumplestiltskin asked warily, although Emma had frozen in the kitchen having an idea what Neal was talking about.

'I may have been parentless in this world, my life may have been crap,' Emma could almost see Neal running a hand through his hair as he always did when he got nervous, antsy or angry, 'but I'd finally found happiness and your _fucking _curse wrecked that.'

'Bae, what are you on about?' Rumplestiltskin obviously didn't like not knowing something.

'Emma!' Neal yelled and Emma could see from the kitchen Rumplestiltskin freeze in shock at his sons' words. 'You abandon me, cursed innocent people and made the person I love more than anything their saviour - I wonder how many lives ruined by you that adds up to.'

Neither of them said anything for a while and Emma was beginning to get impatient as well as worried. A silent Neal wasn't usually a good thing, meaning he was usually brooding or planning.

As she began edging out of the kitchen, Rumplestiltskin's voice floated in.

'Princess, why don't you get out here and stop hiding in the kitchen.'

Emma bristled and stormed her way out into the main area, standing in the doorway.

'I wasn't hiding, thank you very much,' she snapped causing Neal to smirk over at her.

Rumplestiltskin, however, didn't find her response very amusing, 'you two know each other. How?'

Emma looked at Neal and said nothing whilst biting her lip. This was his father, he could explain, she wasn't going to get involved when it could make their relationship worse than it already was.

'I already told you or are you too caught up in what you want that you failed to understand,' Neal growled and Emma placed a, hopefully calming, hand on his arm.

'If you _must _know,' Emma said, far calmer than Neal, 'we were in love.'

'In love?' Rumplestiltskin repeated.

'Yeah,' Neal replied. 'You know that thing that you feel for someone, that makes you put their needs above your own happiness and that you can be completely yourself around. I wouldn't expect you to understand-'

'Neal,' Emma warned gently, thinking of Belle sitting in the hospital with no memories at all.

'You were in love.'

Rumplestiltskin's obvious shock at this made Emma feel a little better about the whole situation. At least this wasn't in his plan; that he hadn't somehow made her and Neal meet and fall in love because she wouldn't be able to take it if it had been. It seemed she had no control over her life anymore and that would probably have tipped her over the edge.

'Yeah,' Neal said and he squeezed Emma's hand, shocking her as she hadn't realized that the hand she had placed on his arm had slowly slid down and into his grasp, 'and you're freaking lucky that I did and still do love her or this would be the last you'd ever see of me.'

'You're still –' Rumplestiltskin began hoarsely but Neal had turned to Emma, who was staring at him confused.

'I wanna meet him,' he said, holding her gaze. 'I want to meet Henry and I wan-_need_ you to forgive me.'

'You can meet Henry,' Emma nodded, speaking softer than she usually did and slipping her hand out of him, feeling immediately cold once she did, ' you're his father, you both deserve that … but you're going to have to wait on the forgiveness part.'

Neal nodded heavily, 'I get that.'

'Wait, wait, wait,' Rumplestiltskin said, holding up one hand, seeming a whole lot happier than a moment ago, and, sighing, both Emma and Neal turned back to him. 'You want to come with us?'

'I want to meet my son,' Neal nodded, causing Rumplestiltskin's eyes to bulge once again.

'Your son?' he repeated as his gaze flickered between his own son and Emma. '_Henry_ is your son.'

'Apparently,' Neal replied for the first time civil with his father as he chuckled nervously and ran a hand through his hair.

'He's a good kid,' Rumplestiltskin nodded, causing Neal to raise his eyebrows and Emma to smile, 'bit of a troublemaker-'

'Gets that from his father,' Emma grinned cheekily at Neal.

'Yeah, right, _car thief_,' Neal chuckled, raising his eyebrows as he said the last two words.

'Pervert,' Emma shot back as Rumplestiltskin watched them with amusement and Neal face broke into a large grin

'Anyway!' Rumplestiltskin said loudly as Neal opened his mouth to reply, 'how about we fly back tomorrow?'

'Sounds good to me,' Emma shrugged, looking at Neal, who nodded his head.

'Yeah, okay.'

* * *

**Not the best chapter ever but yeah and thanks for the review.**

**I hope you like this chapter more than I do and please review x**


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